Happy Birthday Scotty

Dear Scott

I turned around ever so briefly when you were a boy, and when I turned back, you were man.
When did it happen?
My sweet baby boy, who was never cross and always smiled, will turn 15 tomorrow… no longer a baby, and still rarely cross! Lol!

When you were very small, and I was far away and my heart was so heavy, you told me on the phone “oh mommy, the sun is still shining, the clouds are just in the way.”
Such wisdom for someone so small… I carry that in my heart every day.

I remember when you were borne there was some damage from the forceps, and the doctors said you would never totally open your one eye. But every day I would stroke that side of your face, and you would smile your sweet crooked little smile, and every day it got straighter, and you proved them all wrong.

Your big brother so adored you… and would pick you up any chance he got. That bond has never waivered.
Justin has always been the other half of your team. What more could a mother ask than that?
The two of you have always had such a connection… never even apart for more than a couple of days until you were nine. And even then you said, “that was too long… I don’t want to be away from Justin that long again.”
Of course, you have managed to do just that many times since! But it does my heart good to know the two of you are still so close. And you are both such amazing, gracious, good men. I am as proud as I could ever be.
Of course, there is the more nerve wracking aspect to that kinship… like the plans for Justin to design planes that you would test fly. But he made it into the sky ahead of you, and of course this summer you want to follow.

When Hayley was stung by a bee in the yard at Carriage Court Apartments, it was you that put your arm around her shoulders and led her steadily up the stairs, holding her stung hand gently in yours.
Already you were taking care of people. So kind and such a gentleman. We watched from the balcony where Justin had rushed ahead to tell us.
You were four, and she just three and a half.

When you fell out of a tree and broke your arm that same summer, you cried and clung to me with the other arm when the bone was reset. But then when that beastly, arrogant doctor asked if you were going to climb trees again, you sat up straight, looked him right in the eye and said, “Yup, I just aren’t going to fall out again.”
Showed him. You’ve climbed everything in sight ever since. No wonder your Aunt Daphne called you Monkey Boy-Boy and forgot your real name for a year.

You treat your elders with respect, you hold the door open for everyone, not just ladies, you shake hands firmly and with confidence, and I know how hard that can be when you are feeling shy.

Every day I watch you venture further into the adult world, and I know somewhere along the line I did something right with you… and I smile.

And now, here you are. My Scooter, my baby boy no more.
Happy birthday my darling.
I love you to the moon… and back.

And that is far… very, very far.

Xo
Mom